All posts tagged Viktor Orban

“A corrupt government’s Tax Office is corrupt as well,” reads small Hungarian opposition party DK’s sign its activists hung on a bridge in Budapest on Nov. 5 2014.

MTI/MTVA Noemi Bruzak

BUDAPEST–The head of Hungary’s Tax Office has acknowledged she’s among those the U.S. has banned from entering because of alleged involvement in corruption amid deteriorating relations between Budapest and Washington.

Denying any wrongdoing, Ildiko Vida, president of the Hungarian Tax Office, told Hungarian national daily Magyar Nemzet in an interview published on Wednesday that she is among the six people the U.S. has banned from entry. In addition to her, several of her colleagues are also on the list, she added, declining to name them. The Tax Office’s press office confirmed Ms. Vida’s remarks.

“I didn’t commit anything, I was not and am not part of any corruption case, I am clean to face any investigation,” Ms. Vida said in the interview. Read More »

Public protests continued Tuesday night against Hungary’s plan to tax Internet traffic, with the government holding on to the controversial proposal aimed at tapping more of the profits made by telecommunications companies.

Some 30,000 to 40,000 Hungarians, according to local media estimates, took to the streets of Budapest Tuesday night, with the demonstration turning into an anti-government protest. Read More »

BUDAPEST–Tens of thousands of Hungarians protested Sunday night in Budapest against the government’s plan to tax the Internet, a move they said was aimed at limiting access to information, muzzling non-government media and directing attention away from the country’s deteriorating relationship with the U.S.

The towns of Pecs, Miskolc and Veszprem also saw several hundred people demonstrating against the plan, according to the Hungarian state news agency MTI.

“They want to limit our right to information and shepherd us toward state media,” said one of the street protesters in Budapest, a logistics manager who identified himself as Berci, 55.

Under its draft 2015 tax bill submitted to parliament on Tuesday, Hungary’s government plans to impose a 150 Hungarian forint ($0.62) tax on every gigabyte of data users started. Read More »

BUDAPEST–Hungary’s central bank governor, known for his unorthodox policies, has joined the ranks of other world heavyweights by drawing the attention of a Hungarian painter known for his satirical works of men in power.

An acrylic-on-canvas rendition of the bank governor Gyorgy Matolcsy went on sale in the Art Market Budapest earlier this month, in which Mr. Matolcsy is depicted as a Turkish merchant with a red fez crowning his head, a large seal ring on his pinky, and a pet tabby cat at his side.

The painting continues an absurdist tradition of Hungarian artist Bela Marias, known by his artistic pseudonym drMarias, of poking fun at leaders from the Pope to presidents for their outsized influence. Read More »

The State Department refused entry to the U.S. to several Hungarians because it said they had been involved in corruption, once more highlighting tensions between the U.S. administration and the feisty government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

In a statement issued by Charge’d affairs M. Andre Goodfriend the embassy said the US canceled the visas on the basis of “credible information that those persons are either engaging in or benefiting from corruption.”

The State Department didn’t disclose the names of the individuals. Mr. Goodfriend said there were less than 10 and some of them were state officials. Read More »

BUDAPEST–Municipal elections Sunday night brought another sweeping victory for Hungary’s governing Fidesz party, consolidating the power of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has often been on a collision course with the European Union, civil groups, global firms and lately with the U.S. since winning the helm in 2010.

The incumbent mayor of Budapest, Istvan Tarlos, a Fidesz ally, has remained in his seat, with Fidesz winning a majority in the Budapest city council. Apart from Budapest, Fidesz garnered 20 mayoral seats in the biggest cities out of the 23, according to preliminary results. It also won a majority in the municipal councils of all of Hungary’s 23 counties. Of those of voting age, 44.3% cast their vote on Sunday.

This was the third election victory this year for Mr. Orban after April’s parliamentary vote and May’s EU election. Mr. Orban came into power in 2010 with a landslide victory that granted his party a two-thirds majority in parliament, a win it managed to repeat this year. Read More »

Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto signed a cooperation agreement with the German-Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Budapest earlier this week.

MTI/MTVA Lajos Soos

BUDAPEST–Hungary rejected on Friday suggestions that it’s weakening democratic values and limiting civil society freedoms after a top U.S. diplomat made comments interpreted as criticism.

“How can you sleep under your NATO Article 5 blanket at night while pushing ‘illiberal democracy’ by day; whipping up nationalism; restricting free press; or demonizing civil society!” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland said in a speech on Thursday at the Center for European Policy Analysis.

“I ask the same of those who shield crooked officials from prosecution; bypass parliament when convenient; or cut dirty deals that increase their countries’ dependence on one source of energy despite their stated policy of diversification,” Ms. Nuland added. Read More »

The National Policy Institute says “They will fail. We will persevere. The conference will take place.”

NPI website

BUDAPEST–Hungary wants to ban a conference, scheduled for later this week, of the U.S.-based National Policy Institute, which the Central European country’s government considers extremist and racist.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban ordered Interior Minister Sandor Pinter on Sunday to use all legal means at his disposal to prevent the conference, scheduled for this weekend in Budapest.

“Ever since [it came into power in] 2010, this government has been the strongest bastion against any form of extremism in Hungary and also in Central Europe,” Zoltan Kovacs, Hungarian government spokesman, told The Wall Street Journal on Monday.

“We oppose this conference from every aspect,” Mr. Kovacs added.

The NPI said it is disappointed and puzzled by the Hungarian government’s action and that it will obey the laws of Hungary. Much about the event “might have been ‘lost in translation’ or, … [Hungary] is responding to untruthful messages sent by those who oppose the Congress as well as the very notion of traditional identity,” the NPI added. Read More »

Hungary won’t see European Union development funds frozen despite calls from Norway to take punitive steps, a stance prompted by the Hungarian prime minister’s talk of aiming to use authoritarian regimes as models for his country.

Norway said it halted 140 million euro ($193 million) of development funds to the Central European country.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said recently he was going to model his nation on autocratic countries like Russia and Singapore. Read More »

BUDAPEST–Hungary is to replace all banknotes by 2018 in a move that is widely seen to rule out a conversion to the euro anytime soon.

The central bank, which last replaced banknotes between 1997 and 2001–countries customarily leave banknotes in circulation for 10 to 15 years–said the measure is to protect against counterfeit money and fraud.

Analysts added that the step is in concert with Hungary’s intention of holding on to its national currency, the forint.

“This is an indication that there’s not much of a chance of euro adoption before 2020,” said Gergely Gabler, an economist at Erste Bank in Budapest. Read More »

About Emerging Europe

Emerging Europe Real Time provides sharp analysis and insight into what’s making news in Central and Eastern Europe. Drawing on the expertise of our reporters in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Turkey, the site provides an inside track on economics, politics and business in this emerging part of the European continent.